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Mammoth
"The ground trembled and the ranks of barbaric warriors parted with an overawed silence. In strode a towering mountain of muscle and tusks, a doom that all knew and feared." The great mammoths are beasts native to the frozen tundra of Valkenheim, and despite their great size and strength, are usually peaceful creatures. The great herds are found throughout the tundra and northern grasslands of the region. Physiology Mammoths are elephantine beasts covered with thick fur and with great tusks. Adult males reach shoulder heights of 11 feet and weigh up to 6 tons, with adult females being 10 feet tall at the shoulder and weigh up to 4 tons, being more lightly built. Mammoths are herbivores and a herd can strip an area of vegetation down to the roots when feeding in one are for too long before moving on. Their sheer size is sufficient protection from most predators, with their only predators being thunderwolves and the rare group of Calfur. Even so, the massive tusks of the mammoth are in themselves a great deterrent for predators. Life Cycle A mammoth commonly lives for about 60 - 70 years before it dies of old age. The gestation period of a mammoth is nearly two years per birth, which are almost invariably single births. A newborn mammoth calf weighs about 90 kg upon birth. Mammoths are very social creatures and live in matriarchal family groups of anywhere between 2 and 50 mammoths. Bull mammoths are loners that tend to wander the tundra until mating season, where bulls compete in often violent confrontations for the right to mate with mature females. Young bulls who have not yet reached sexual maturity stay with their mothers in the herds, and when they reach reproductive age, they either leave the herd or are driven out. It is these young bulls that are the most common prey for a pack of thunderwolves to bring down, as they are perhaps not yet full grown and have only recently left the protection of their herds. Whilst normally peaceful, when roused to fury a mammoth is terrifying to behold. Very little is capable of halting a charging mammoth, as trees are smashed aside and and creature smaller than the mammoth is trampled underfoot or gored by its massive tusks. The sheer destruction a stampeding herd can unleash is often compared to a tornado passing through an area. Domestication Tame mammoths are commonly used as beasts of burden, due to their sheer physical size and strength. Common task include hauling great loads overland, dragging logs to rivers and roads and transportation. Due to the existence of the mischievous torse, mammoths are more likely to be domesticated than horses in Valkenheim, and as such any task that would be normally carried out by horses is performed by mammoths. War mammoths are possibly the most terrifying use of these creatures, as when heavily armoured and with great iron spiked rings on the tusks, the already nigh-unstoppable charge of these beasts is further enhanced. A war mammoth commonly bears a great howdah on its back to transport archers and spear throwers around the battlefield, and is commonly employed as a linebreaker. Category:Fauna __FORCETOC__